Wagner: The Ring Cycle. Diffinitive Lp Pressing?

Rush: Actually, I did meet you briefly, I had the Vaughn Williams Tallis Fantasia, and was about to go into the listening room with you when I had to go pick up one of our members whose car had broken down; you had left by the time I could get back. I'm sorry I couldn't talk more with you. I'll e-mail you separately, want to ask you a bit more about Lloyd's turntable.

Rcprince, I remember our conversation! Thanks for connecting the conversation, the face, and the name for me. I look forward to hearing from you in a separate email.
Cheers,

You vcan look over my comments at amazon.
Type in Wagner/Keilberth. I made comments on the 1952 and 1953 recordings. Also type in Wagner/Furtwangler, look at the 1953/EMI set.
I go by the name paulb.
These are not on lp's. Sorry.

Rushton nailed it perfectly. I had the cycle in both Decca and London sound in my "vinyl" days. I can only reinforce what he said as being absolutely correct.

I currently have the Decca Box set complete and cherish being able to sit through entire movements of this 16 hour monster without having to get up every 28 minutes and turn the LP over. I haven't sacrificed much in the way of sound either but admit there was an intangible snap and romanticism to the LPs that CDs rarely touch in any genre.

Let me add another dimension to this discussion. Try to pick up a copy of John Culshaws book: "Ring Resounding" long out of print from 1967 but worth whatever it takes to score a copy. This is a blow by blow description of everything that it took to create the Decca Solti Ring cycle. It provides another layer of information to understand this complex piece of art.

While I'm on the topic of the Ring and great books about it; Deryck Cooke wrote an incredible piece entitled: "I saw the World End", a quote from Wagners text. The only shortcoming to these brilliant insights is that Cooke died before he could write the conclusion to these thoughts.

Lastly, "Turning the Sky Around" by M.Owen Lee. A fabulous look at the metaphysics and psychology captured within the Rings fabric.

For me, these books and many others have helped me to gain a better understanding of this genius work. I still have countless unanswered questions and my sense is that it's probably a universal experience. We each bring our own story to the Ring and then compare it to a possible road map of humanity that reveals itself slowly and uniquely to each seeker that would try to discover its' meanings. Seriously consider reading in addition to listening and watching this epic work. It cannot be completely experienced in any one media but demands all of our senses to effectively release its hidden gold.

Thank you all for your kind advice.
Happy Listening!